The military always likes to be at least one step ahead, so while we all get used to facial recognition unlocking our phones, the US military wants to detect the faces of individuals at long range and in the dark.
As the OneZero blog reports, the US military is funding two contracts worth a combined value of $4.2 million. In return, the Department of Defense is expecting a device small enough to be carried, but capable of reading the heat pattern of a face and allowing it to be identified. It's expected this will be achieved through a combination of infrared imaging and thermal image processing techniques.
According to the proposal, the "sensors should be demonstrable in environments such as targets seen through automotive windshield glass, targets that are backlit, and targets that are obscured due to light weather (e.g., fog)." The range of detection needs to span 10 to 500 meters.
The two contracts were awarded to Polaris Sensor Technologies and Cyan Systems Inc. at the end of Sept. 2019 with the delivery date currently set as Sept. 29, 2021. Polaris develops electro-optic sensors and novel imaging sensors using polarization to offer image recognition it claims is better than thermal. Cyan Systems on the other hand is focused on infrared sensor technology and hardware for high-definition imaging.
Although this is a military project, it's technology that will have a much wider appeal to governments around the world. In particular, I'm sure China, which is already seen as leading the world in surveillance technology, would love to use it for tracking its own population at night and over longer distances. For all we know, though, it may have already developed the tech itself.